GordonGordon
Jul 6, 09, 6:03 am
My wife and I stayed at IC ANA Manza Beach Resort for 5 nights/6 days a week ago and had been treated very.....very nicely. We both think that this is one of the nicest IC resort in the world, if not the best.
RA treatment
Fruit plate
Ambassador gift (2 home-made hankies and a small transparent plastic bottled ornament with a piece of dry starfish and orchid flower)
Free breakfast for 2 adults every morning
Free mini-bar (snack not included)
Free catamaran cruise (about 40 mins cruising near Manzamo Cape)
Bunch of 500 Yen coupons for discount on excursions and meals
Room
Booked the cheapest room with PB promotion and got upgraded to a 64sqm corner suite. Even without contact the hotel in advance, the upgrade could be viewed online at priorityclub.com couple days before arrival. The corner living-room has a huge terrace (2 sun-loungers, 1 square table and 2 chairs) on one side and a separate balcony on the other side. The bedroom also has a balcony, so the whole suite has 2 separate balconies and 1 huge terrace. The terrace overlooks Manzamo Cape and the 2 balconies overlook the ocean. The view is stunning!!! 46 inches Plasma TV, stereo and recording systems, coffee and tea making facilities, hot pot, room safe, Elemis bathing amenities (including bath salt, hydrating spray and lip moisturizer), toothbrush, toothpaste, razor and comb, etc are all included in the room. In the bathroom, there are 2 separate doors, one for the toilet cubicle and one for the bathing area. Bathing area has a huge bathtub and a separate shower cubicle. Toilet seat is the typical Japanese electronic one that warms up the seat and cleans you up with built-in washlet:D. 2 pairs of fabric made room-slippers and 2 more pairs of plastic slippers are provided in the room. During breakfast time, we saw most of the Japanese wearing the plastic slippers for breakfast.
Beach and pools
The hotel has 2 outdoor pools, one right next to the hotel main building and one on the beach. Both pools have separate min-pool for kids. Manza Beach is right next to the hotel and complimentary hotel shuttle bus (we never used it)runs regularly between the hotel main building and the beach although it is only a short 3-5 minutes WALK. The hotel has its own section on the beach and a pool as well as previously mentioned. Free towels, sun-chair and umbrella are provided for hotel guest. Lifeguards were on duty at the beach and beach pool from very early morning till 6pm, and were also on guard at the main hotel pool till 8pm.
PROS
Free valet parking is provided for hotel guests with rental cars. The young, cheerful and courteous valet parking staff ran to get our car every time without letting us waiting too long.
Good news for non-smokers: The only location that people can smoke in the hotel is the indoor smoking chamber at the lower lobby, other than that we had never seen any people smoking at any other places in the hotel, not even at any outdoor open area. The beach also has 2 small designated smoking areas far away from the crowd, so you can freely enjoy the fresh air, sun and beach.
CONS
Although the staff are EXTREMELY polite and helpful, they don’t speak much English. We had difficulty to communicate with them even though my wife could manage to speak some Japanese.
The hotel has its own dive center, but because they don’t speak English at all, so it was not possible for me to join them for diving or snorkeling.
Although the hotel is huge, it doesn’t have gym or exercise room.
The closet is located in the bathroom. Although it doesn’t bother us, we find it strange. First time we had ever seen a setting like this.
Only sun-chair is provided on the beach, no sun-lounger. The chair is so tiny and a kind of uncomfortable, and it is not possible to make it flat although you can recline the seat back, so there are no ways you can tan your back. However, sun-lounger is provided at the hotel pool.
When we were there, probably due to summer holiday, kids with families were everywhere, we constantly heard kids crying and screaming at the pool or even on the beach, but it seemed it was easier to find a quiet spot on the beach than at the pool.
The Japanese restaurant in the hotel closes on every Monday and we never understand why as hotel guests don't take day off on Monday:confused::confused::confused:.
Excursions
Since the staff at diving center don’t speak English at all, so I gave up the idea of diving at Okinawa. Instead we drove to the famous diving/snorkeling spot called “Blue Cave” (Japanese: 青の洞窟) at Cape Zanpa (Japanese: 殘波岬) for snorkeling 2 days in a role. It took less than 20 minutes by our rental car to get there from the hotel. The public facility at the Blue Cave provides coin lockers, restaurants and shower facilities (need to pay). We parked our car at the outdoor parking garage (need to pay) where we saw a lot of individual divers loading up their diving gears before walking down the stairs to the seashore. At Blue Cave, we saw a lot of colorful fishes, and noticed that few species we had never seen in Maldives, Tahiti or elsewhere, but not much coral though although they look pretty and healthy. The Blue Cave was so packed with divers/snorkelers (groups after groups… never ending) for the 2 days we were there.
Tips
You need to rent a car. The 6 days/5 nights rental costs us only 25,000 Yen (US$260) with full insurance and GPS. GPS is only available in Japanese, but they gave you a paper with English instruction to show you how to input the telephone number of the location (no need to input the full address) where you want to go. The hotel is about 40 something km from the airport on the north and it is easier and faster to use the toll highway (700yen) during rush hours.
Visiting the Ocean Expo Park is a must, where you can see 3 adult whalesharks and all other exotic species swimming in the gigantic indoor aquarium. It is about 1 hour drive further north-east of the hotel.
If you drive to visit downtown Okinawa, it is better to park at the paid garage. We got the parking ticket which costs us 15,000 Yen (US$150)!!! We actually found a parking space with meter and noticed there was a sign stated in the meter “use between 8am-8pm”, we got there by 8:30pm, so we thought it was fine and safe to park our car and didn’t realize there was a no parking sign standing far away from us stating no parking from 8pm-8am! If the car rental center had to handle the parking ticket, they would charge us 25,000 Yen (US$262) to our credit card, so we went directly to the police station to pay for the parking ticket.
Make sure you fill up the correct gasoline for your rental car. There was NO English sign on the gasoline type and the gas station we visited was self-serviced. The worst thing was they put all kind of gas at the same place and confused us. In the States, the gas station usually separates diesel far from the regular gasolines (regular, Plus and V-power or super-unlead). In Okinawa, the put diesel, regular and super-unlead (without the mid range gasoline) at the same place and we thought the diesel was the regular gas, so we filled up diesel instead of regular gas and caused our car breaking down in the middle of the road when we were on the way to the airport car rental center. Luckily we didn’t miss our flight since we left our hotel 4 hours before the flight departure time. In addition, fortunately we paid the extra 2,000 yen insurance charge (waiving all the liabilities) when we picked up our car, otherwise they would charge us 50,000 Yen (US$524) for the broken car (car not moving at all).
Avoid going to downtown Okinawa on Friday night, the traffic jam is very serious. We arrived on Friday evening and the trip from the airport to rental car center by car rental shuttle bus took us about 1 hour 15 mins (supposed to be a short 5 mins journey). After we got our car, it took us another one hour + just to get to the entrance of the highway. The traffic was simply not moving at all!
(edit to add)
McDonald's opens 24 hrs in okinawa if you are not into oriental food, and there is one not so far from the hotel. It is about 15 mins drive to the south toward Onna Village.
After all, this IC resort is highly recommended!
RA treatment
Fruit plate
Ambassador gift (2 home-made hankies and a small transparent plastic bottled ornament with a piece of dry starfish and orchid flower)
Free breakfast for 2 adults every morning
Free mini-bar (snack not included)
Free catamaran cruise (about 40 mins cruising near Manzamo Cape)
Bunch of 500 Yen coupons for discount on excursions and meals
Room
Booked the cheapest room with PB promotion and got upgraded to a 64sqm corner suite. Even without contact the hotel in advance, the upgrade could be viewed online at priorityclub.com couple days before arrival. The corner living-room has a huge terrace (2 sun-loungers, 1 square table and 2 chairs) on one side and a separate balcony on the other side. The bedroom also has a balcony, so the whole suite has 2 separate balconies and 1 huge terrace. The terrace overlooks Manzamo Cape and the 2 balconies overlook the ocean. The view is stunning!!! 46 inches Plasma TV, stereo and recording systems, coffee and tea making facilities, hot pot, room safe, Elemis bathing amenities (including bath salt, hydrating spray and lip moisturizer), toothbrush, toothpaste, razor and comb, etc are all included in the room. In the bathroom, there are 2 separate doors, one for the toilet cubicle and one for the bathing area. Bathing area has a huge bathtub and a separate shower cubicle. Toilet seat is the typical Japanese electronic one that warms up the seat and cleans you up with built-in washlet:D. 2 pairs of fabric made room-slippers and 2 more pairs of plastic slippers are provided in the room. During breakfast time, we saw most of the Japanese wearing the plastic slippers for breakfast.
Beach and pools
The hotel has 2 outdoor pools, one right next to the hotel main building and one on the beach. Both pools have separate min-pool for kids. Manza Beach is right next to the hotel and complimentary hotel shuttle bus (we never used it)runs regularly between the hotel main building and the beach although it is only a short 3-5 minutes WALK. The hotel has its own section on the beach and a pool as well as previously mentioned. Free towels, sun-chair and umbrella are provided for hotel guest. Lifeguards were on duty at the beach and beach pool from very early morning till 6pm, and were also on guard at the main hotel pool till 8pm.
PROS
Free valet parking is provided for hotel guests with rental cars. The young, cheerful and courteous valet parking staff ran to get our car every time without letting us waiting too long.
Good news for non-smokers: The only location that people can smoke in the hotel is the indoor smoking chamber at the lower lobby, other than that we had never seen any people smoking at any other places in the hotel, not even at any outdoor open area. The beach also has 2 small designated smoking areas far away from the crowd, so you can freely enjoy the fresh air, sun and beach.
CONS
Although the staff are EXTREMELY polite and helpful, they don’t speak much English. We had difficulty to communicate with them even though my wife could manage to speak some Japanese.
The hotel has its own dive center, but because they don’t speak English at all, so it was not possible for me to join them for diving or snorkeling.
Although the hotel is huge, it doesn’t have gym or exercise room.
The closet is located in the bathroom. Although it doesn’t bother us, we find it strange. First time we had ever seen a setting like this.
Only sun-chair is provided on the beach, no sun-lounger. The chair is so tiny and a kind of uncomfortable, and it is not possible to make it flat although you can recline the seat back, so there are no ways you can tan your back. However, sun-lounger is provided at the hotel pool.
When we were there, probably due to summer holiday, kids with families were everywhere, we constantly heard kids crying and screaming at the pool or even on the beach, but it seemed it was easier to find a quiet spot on the beach than at the pool.
The Japanese restaurant in the hotel closes on every Monday and we never understand why as hotel guests don't take day off on Monday:confused::confused::confused:.
Excursions
Since the staff at diving center don’t speak English at all, so I gave up the idea of diving at Okinawa. Instead we drove to the famous diving/snorkeling spot called “Blue Cave” (Japanese: 青の洞窟) at Cape Zanpa (Japanese: 殘波岬) for snorkeling 2 days in a role. It took less than 20 minutes by our rental car to get there from the hotel. The public facility at the Blue Cave provides coin lockers, restaurants and shower facilities (need to pay). We parked our car at the outdoor parking garage (need to pay) where we saw a lot of individual divers loading up their diving gears before walking down the stairs to the seashore. At Blue Cave, we saw a lot of colorful fishes, and noticed that few species we had never seen in Maldives, Tahiti or elsewhere, but not much coral though although they look pretty and healthy. The Blue Cave was so packed with divers/snorkelers (groups after groups… never ending) for the 2 days we were there.
Tips
You need to rent a car. The 6 days/5 nights rental costs us only 25,000 Yen (US$260) with full insurance and GPS. GPS is only available in Japanese, but they gave you a paper with English instruction to show you how to input the telephone number of the location (no need to input the full address) where you want to go. The hotel is about 40 something km from the airport on the north and it is easier and faster to use the toll highway (700yen) during rush hours.
Visiting the Ocean Expo Park is a must, where you can see 3 adult whalesharks and all other exotic species swimming in the gigantic indoor aquarium. It is about 1 hour drive further north-east of the hotel.
If you drive to visit downtown Okinawa, it is better to park at the paid garage. We got the parking ticket which costs us 15,000 Yen (US$150)!!! We actually found a parking space with meter and noticed there was a sign stated in the meter “use between 8am-8pm”, we got there by 8:30pm, so we thought it was fine and safe to park our car and didn’t realize there was a no parking sign standing far away from us stating no parking from 8pm-8am! If the car rental center had to handle the parking ticket, they would charge us 25,000 Yen (US$262) to our credit card, so we went directly to the police station to pay for the parking ticket.
Make sure you fill up the correct gasoline for your rental car. There was NO English sign on the gasoline type and the gas station we visited was self-serviced. The worst thing was they put all kind of gas at the same place and confused us. In the States, the gas station usually separates diesel far from the regular gasolines (regular, Plus and V-power or super-unlead). In Okinawa, the put diesel, regular and super-unlead (without the mid range gasoline) at the same place and we thought the diesel was the regular gas, so we filled up diesel instead of regular gas and caused our car breaking down in the middle of the road when we were on the way to the airport car rental center. Luckily we didn’t miss our flight since we left our hotel 4 hours before the flight departure time. In addition, fortunately we paid the extra 2,000 yen insurance charge (waiving all the liabilities) when we picked up our car, otherwise they would charge us 50,000 Yen (US$524) for the broken car (car not moving at all).
Avoid going to downtown Okinawa on Friday night, the traffic jam is very serious. We arrived on Friday evening and the trip from the airport to rental car center by car rental shuttle bus took us about 1 hour 15 mins (supposed to be a short 5 mins journey). After we got our car, it took us another one hour + just to get to the entrance of the highway. The traffic was simply not moving at all!
(edit to add)
McDonald's opens 24 hrs in okinawa if you are not into oriental food, and there is one not so far from the hotel. It is about 15 mins drive to the south toward Onna Village.
After all, this IC resort is highly recommended!